Sad News, Good News, and Chile Haiku

Angela de Hoyos

Angela de Hoyos passed away on September 24 in San Antonio. The obituary in the San Antonio Express-News, by Edmund Tijerina , begins:

Among the most influential poets of the Chicano movement and in Texas literature at large, Angela de Hoyos died Thursday at her South Side home. She was 86.

“An exquisite poetic voice and one of the first Chicana poets to publish, Angela was not only significant as a writer but also as a pioneer in Chicano publishing,” writer Carmen Tafolla said.

De Hoyos' published works include the collections Chicano Poems: For the Barrio, Woman, Woman, and Arise Chicano! Her poem To Walt Whitman remains one of her most quoted pieces.

You can read the rest of the article at this link. Our condolences to the family, her many fans, and readers.

Authors in Town

Sherman Alexie
October 13, 2009 - 7:30 pm

National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie will read from and sign his new adult book War Dances (Grove), a heartbreaking and hilarious collection of stories that explore the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large. Brazen, and wise, War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. The new beginnings, successes, mistakes, and regrets that make up our daily lives are laid bare in this wide-ranging and provocative new work that is Alexie at the height of his powers. Free numbered tickets for a place in the book signing line will be available at 6:30 pm; one ticket per customer in line. Seating for the presentation prior to the signing is limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis to ticketed customers only.
Tattered Cover Book Store Historic LoDo
1628 16th St.
Denver, Colorado 80202

Reyna Grande
October 15, 2009 - 7:30 pm

Reyna Grande came to the United States at age nine to join her father, who had left her behind in Mexico for several years. She went on to become the first person in her family to obtain a higher education. She holds a B.A. and an M.F.A. in creative writing. Her first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, received the El Premio Aztlan Literary Award in 2006 and an American Book Award in 2007. Grande will read from and sign her new novel Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square), the story of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegría. Visit Reyna Grande’s website Tattered Cover Book Store Highlands Ranch 9315 Dorchester Street Littleton, Colorado 80129

Phoenix Noir
edited by Patrick Millikin
Akashic Press, 2009

October 3 - 6:00 pm
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
4014 N. Goldwater Blvd., #101
Scottsdale, AZ

A book launch featuring editor Patrick Millikin and contributors Charles Kelly, James Sallis, Laura Tohe, Robert Anglen, Kurt Reichenbaugh, Stella Pope Duarte, David Corbett, and Jon Talton

[from Akashic's website]
Brand-new stories by: Diana Gabaldon, Lee Child, James Sallis, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jon Talton, Megan Abbott, Charles Kelly, Robert Anglen, Patrick Millikin, Laura Tohe, Kurt Reichenbaugh, Gary Phillips, David Corbett, Don Winslow, Dogo Barry Graham, and Stella Pope Duarte.

Sunshine is the new noir . . . Phoenix: its name evokes new beginnings, a place to start over fresh, new west rising out of the ashes of the old. From its frontier origins, Phoenix has always had a dark, lawless side. It is a city founded upon shady development deals, good ol' boy politics, police corruption, organized crime, and exploitative use of natural resources. Close proximity to the Mexican border makes the city a natural destination spot for illegal trafficking of all kinds--narcotics, weapons, humans.

Modern-day Phoenix is a textbook case of suburban sprawl gone unchecked. Endless cookie-cutter housing developments, slapped up on the cheap, metastasize outward into the desert. All of the concrete and asphalt traps the heat, raising the temperature to apocalyptic extremes. What does all this mean? Crime, and lots of it.

Braided Sorrow Wins PEN USA Lit Award

Marisela Treviño Orta has been honored with the 2009 PEN USA Literary Award for Drama for her play Braided Sorrow, a haunting and poetic meditation on the missing women of Juárez, Mexico.

Su Teatro produced the 2008 world premiere of Braided Sorrow to great acclaim. The Denver Post called it "alternately haunting and beautiful." The Rocky Mountain News called it "chilling reality and artful imagining." Westword called it "gutsy." And the North Denver Tribune called it "important."

Other 2009 PEN award winners include Steve Lopez (The Soloist), Dustin Lance Black (Milk), and Elmore Leonard (Lifetime Achievement). Past winners include Ray Bradbury, Neil Simon, Rudolfo Anaya, Steven Dietz, Sandra Cisneros, Cherrrie Moraga, Woody Allen, Sarah Ruhl, Barbara Kingsolver, and Charlie Kaufman.

Treviño's amazing play (her first) had previously won the 2007 University of California, Irvine Chicano/Latino Literary Prize. Braided Sorrow was also featured in Su Teatro's 2007 New Play Reading Series, a project that illustrates Su Teatro's commitment to produce, present, and promote new and exciting work by Chicanos and Latinos from across the U.S. and beyond its borders.

2009 Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship

Metropolitan State College of Denver has announced that artist and educator Delilah Montoya is the 2009 Castro Distinguished Professor. Montoya is Associate Professor of Photography at the University of Houston. As the announcement says, her work, "grounded in the mestizo/a experience of the Southwest and borderlands, brings together a multiplicity of syncretic forms and practices from those of Aztec Mexico and Spain to cross-border vernacular traditions all of which are shaded by contemporary Native American customs and values." There are a variety of events planned during her stay on campus, October 11 -14. You can get all the details and complete agenda on the Metro State website, here.

One special piece of the schedule is that Montoya's 10’ x 8’ Photo Mural, La Llorona in Lilith’s Garden will be on display beginning in late September through the closing reception at the Institute for Women’s Studies and Services, 1033 Ninth Street Park.

One of Montoya's talks is entitled Codex Delilah, Six Deer: Journey from Mexicatl to Chicana. Montoya approaches the Spanish/Indian encounter from a mestizaje perspective. As a Chicana, Montoya is conscious of how the historical contributions of women have been undermined or completely ignored. This project attempts to correct that injustice by rethinking the traditional interpretation of the European/ Native Encounter. The narrative of this artist book is viewed from the perspective of Six Deer, a fictional young Mayatec girl from the Tutuepec region near present-day Mexico City. From her home to the nuclear weapons laboratories in New Mexico, the codex details Six Deer's journey of enlightenment.

All events free and open to the public. To RSVP to any event or to find out more information, please contact Mercedes Salazar - msalaz27@mscd.edu or 303-556-3124.

The Castro Professorship
The Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship was initiated in 1997 to foster multiculturalism, diversity and academic excellence at Metropolitan State College of Denver. The professorship brings renowned Latina and Latino scholars, artists and leaders of distinction to Metro State to conduct classes, seminars, performances and lectures for students, faculty and the larger Denver community. Richard T. Castro Distinguished Professors have included the following luminaries:
• Cherrie Moraga, playwright, poet, essayist and educator
• Carlos Fuentes, novelist and diplomat
• Carmen Lomas Garza, artist and author
• Ana Castillo, novelist and poet
• Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers vice president
• Richard “Cheech” Marin, actor and art collector

Chile Today

In honor of the recent chile harvest, the beginning of fall, and the misunderstood relationship many of us have with chile - Jalapeño, Serrano, Bolita, Güerita, Ancho, Anaheim, even Red Peter - here are a few lines of affection for my favorite condiment.

1
My jalapeño
picked fresh from the garden
bites back with hot teeth.

2
I have sweated, cried
burned lips and scorched throat.
It must be true love

3
Love hurts and love burns.
Such a demanding lover.
Chile with all meals.

Your turn. Post a few words to La Bloga's comments, poetic or otherwise, haiku or not, about your relationship with chile. Make them picante pero sabroso.

Later.

Hit List

NEW LATINO CRIME FICTION ANTHOLOGY
I can finally announce that a Latino crime fiction anthology is on the way. This idea has been talked about for years, with a few false starts, by writers, readers, publishers, critics. Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez managed to turn the talk into action. Cortez and Martinez are the editors of a new book that will be released in the spring of 2009. Tentatively titled Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, the book will include stories by new and veteran writers exploring the mystery, detective, and crime fiction genres from a Latino perspective.

Arte Público is the publisher. I don't have a list of the writers featured in the book, but I know that Steven Torres (the Precinct Puerto Rico series and The Concrete Maze) has a story in the anthology and I am fairly certain that Lucha Corpi also has a piece in the collection. I've been told that Ralph E. Rodriguez, who wrote Brown Gumshoes: Detective Fiction and the Search for Chicana/o Identity, will write an introduction for the book. My contribution is a story entitled The Skull of Pancho Villa - it's a killer, as they say in the biz.

If anyone has more details about this book that you would like to share with La Bloga, go ahead and post a comment. We all would appreciate the information. I'll post updates about this book as I learn more, including a definite publication date.

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS AT MUSEO DE LAS AMERICAS

Conversation>Contacto: Artist talk featuring Mexican paper artist, Jorge Rosano.

In collaboration with the Mexican Consulate and the Mexican Cultural Center, renowned Mexican paper artist Jorge Rosano will unveil a one-of-a-kind paper altar as part of the Museo's Día de los Muertos festivities. The event will include a special performance by Fiesta Colorado.

Rosano is widely known for his contemporary 3-D cut-paper sculptures, which are inspired by the Pre-Hispanic Indian tradition of paper cutting. His work reflects on Mexican culture and history and is done spontaneously without the use of preliminary sketches.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
6:30 PM @ the Museo
Members $3, General admission $5
861 Santa Fe Dr, Denver, CO 80204
303-571-4401 www.museo.org

BRAIDED SORROW EXTENDED
Back by popular demand… Su Teatro announces Braided Sorrow: The Extension

If you missed this amazing production, you’ll get four more chances to experience it: Thursday 11/6 at 7pm; Friday 11/7 at 8:05pm; Saturday 11/8 at 8:05pm; Sunday 11/9 at 3pm. Don’t miss this final opportunity to see the hottest show of Denver’s fall theater season. $18, $15 students/seniors, groups of 12+ for $12 each. This play won the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize and was selected by the Denver Post as one of the ten plays that must be seen this season. Su Teatro's production is a world premiere of the play by Marisela Treviño Orta.

Don’t miss your last chance to see this incredibly moving story about the missing women of Juárez and the one mysterious figure who knows too much —the play Westword calls “gutsy” —the play the Rocky Mountain News calls “chilling reality and artful imagining” —the play the Denver Post calls “alternately haunting and beautiful” —the play the North Denver Tribune calls “important.”

LATINO LITERATURE CONFERENCE AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ
Press release from UCSC:

A distinguished group of writers, editors, scholars, and publishers will converge on the UCSC campus November 6-8, for a bilingual conference on Latino Literature.

In addition to a series of academic panels, the conference will feature eight noted writers and poets who will read from their works in two evening sessions--Thursday and Friday, November 6 and 7--at the UCSC Humanities Lecture Hall beginning at 7 p.m.

Admission is free and open to the public.

Guest authors and poets appearing at the conference will include:

• Daniel Alarcón: award-winning fiction writer and essayist. His most recent novel, Lost City Radio, was named a “Best Book of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times and several other publications; he is also the editor of the Lima-based Etiqueta Negra, a cross-border print/online literary journal.

• Héctor Tobar: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the LA Times (and a UCSC alumnus). He is the author of the novel The Tattooed Soldier (Penguin) and the nonfiction book Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States.

• Achy Obejas: fiction and poetry writer. She is the author of the short story collection We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?, the novels Memory Mambo, and Days of Awe, as well as a new poetry collection. Objeas edited the volume Havana Noir, and is also translating Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer-Prize winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

• Brenda Cárdenas: Chicago-based Chicana poet and performer. Her most recent chapbook is From the Tongues of Brick and Stone.

• Luis Cortés Bargalló: poet and translator based in Baja California. He is co-editor of the two-volume bilingual poetry anthology Connecting Lines/Líneas Conectadas co-sponsored by the NEA and UNAM.

• Dagoberto Gilb: acclaimed fiction writer (The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña; Woodcuts of Women; The Flowers), essayist (Gritos), and anthologist (Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature).

• Marc David Pinate: poet, playwright, and community activist. He is currently program manager at Galería de la Raza in San Francisco and is the co-founder and front man-poet of Grito Serpentino, a spoken word and music ensemble with a high profile in the slam poetry scene.

• Cristina Rivera Garza: one of the leading novelists in Mexico. She is the author of the prizewinning Nadie me verá llorar, translated as No One Will See Me Cry, as well as short story and poetry collections.

Designed to explore the variety and diversity of Latino literature, the conference will also feature a lunch workshop on November 8 with secondary school teachers.

Panel discussions with writers, scholars, and librarians will take place on Friday, Nov. 7, from 9:30 am to 4 pm and on Saturday Nov. 8, from 10 am to 12:30 p.m. at UCSC's Namaste Lounge (Colleges 9 and 10).

For more information and a complete schedule of conference events, go to the Conference web site.

FENCE BUSTERS
If you haven't had the time to read my short story Fence Busters yet, published by the Rocky Mountain News online and in the paper itself, you can listen to an excellent recording of a reading of the story by Gabriella Cavallero. Go to this web page and click on the Audio button under Additional Media. Ms. Cavallero does a fine job.

NEW MAGAZINE
Finally, I hear there's a new Latino lifestyle magazine based in Chicago - Café. Everything I know about it is found in this article at the Chicago Reader. ¡Buena suerte!

Later.